HackAftermath
by Nuva
Summary: A year after Kite, Blackrose, and Balmung saved The World a new event Aftermath has been started. But a girl named Mika, a wavemaster, becomes trapped, like Tsukasa. Now shes gotta find out how to escape, and who to trust...
1. Chapter 1: Beginning

.Hack/Aftermath

Phase 1: The Beginning

DING DING DING!

The players of "The World" in Carmina Gadelica looked up to a balcony. On it, was an Oddly dressed middle aged looking man… who wore… a maids outfit. His eyes were covered by a black bar, and a little fairy sat on his shoulder. His hands were cupped before his chest, and a smile sat on his face.

"That you all for playing "The world" He giggled. "As you all know, its been about a year since the Net Crisis was ended by the .Hackers: Kite, Blackrose, and Balmung."

A lot of the players cheered, raising weapons, or whistling with pride. As typical of any group, someone screamed "KITE ROCKS!"

The man waited till the cheering died before he continued. "In honor of that, We will open the locked fields that have been the hot spot of topics on the boards. You may freely wander those fields, and marvel at the events that took place. Thank you all again." Then, he vanished.

Players scrambled around, gathering items and whatnot before rushing to the chaos gate. Within moments, all but one was gone.

A girl, with long white hair, blue eyes, and a pale complexion stood in the middle of Carmina in a long greenish dress. From her eyes, were red lines, going from above the eye, then over and about half way down her cheeks. She sighed. "I have no one to go with…"

"I'll go with you." A voice offered. It belonged to a twin blade, who looked like all the other twin blades. "I'm Kinoch. I'd gladly go with you to the fields if you'd like." He smirked.

"Really? Oh. My Name is Mika Sorano." She held out her hand and shook Kinoch's, giving him her member address. "Do you know where the first one is?"

"Yes. Its Beta, Chosen Hopeless Nothingness." Kinoch nodded. "Do you want to go now?"

"First I want to save my game…" Mika hurried over to the recorded, who jotted down what was needed. Then she wandered back over with a smile. "Ready."

They logged in, and Mika gasped, taking in everything she could. "Whats with this place? Its still broken up and showing the data."

"it must not have been repaired." Kinoch watched her, looking angry. "Why did you save?" he inquired.

"What?" Mika looked back. "Why did I save? What if something bad happened to me?"

"You know what I mean." Kinoch raised his blades. "You had to go and ruin everything by saving. Now I can't take much joy from this…" he looked rather angry.

"You're… a Player Killer…" Mika, if possible, was now paler than before. She trusted up her arms, spouting "Ah puih!" the spell for quickness. She burst away from Kinoch.

"I'LL STILL FIND YOU! YOU'RE PART OF MY PARTY! THE ONLY PLACE TO GO IS THE DUNGEON!" Kinoch screamed and then ran after Mika.

Mika had now reached the 5th floor of the dungeon, having weaved her way through with trusted fairy's orbs. She had noted there weren't monsters… which were good. But now… she was trapped… Alone, there was a door with purple flames infront of it… a boss lie beyond. One she knew she couldn't take on alone.

"There you are!" Kinoch breathed heavily as he entered the room. He twitched. "you've been a bad, bad girl Mika. Running away from me like that." He sighed. "I'm gonna have to… PUNISH YOU!" he leapt at the wavemaster, who fell backwards and rolled through the gate. It slammed shut in Kinoch's face. He growled and slammed his blades against the steel bars. "DAMN IT! YOU STUPID NEWBIE! I'LL GET YOU!" and he logged out.

Mika whimpered and opened her eyes. She was in a different field now… a large hunk of ground was beneath her, and several strips of green ran across it. Pieces of different fields floated around her, and sitting in the middle of the piece she stood on, was a hexagonal red object. She reached out, taking it within her hand. The hexagonal disc disappeared…

"You have obtained Virus Core Alpha." Appeared before her… but then… so did the beast known as Skeith… it was Ghost image though… see through. But it raised its staff, and struck at her. She went wide eyed again as her screen suddenly went snowy, and she was suddenly in Dun Loreiag.

"That… .. was odd…" she slowly sat up, holding her head. "I need a drink…" she reached up to take off her goggles… but felt her face. She blinked in confusion, feeling her head completely. "Why am I still…? Whats going on?" She got up and ran over to the recorder, who seemed to have trouble writing down her data.

"You must be having trouble with your internet." He said, managing to write down her information. "There… You should run some virus programs." He offered.

"Thanks. I'll consider." She ran over to the chaos gate and raised her arms. "Log out. Log out. Where's the Menu?" she whimpered, straining to do anything. "WHY CAN'T I LOG OUT?"

"Rebecca. Dinners ready." A girl's mom knocked on the door. "Rebecca?" she opened it, only to find her daughter slumped over in her chair, goggles knocked off, with her character standing before the Chaos gate. A message on screen said "Please Do Not Reset Terminal."

This woman… screamed.


	2. Chapter 2: Infection

.Hack/Aftermath

Phase 2

Infection

"Great… and I thought that with the new updates Sever crashes wouldn't happen anymore." Lios grabbed his head. "We'll have to shut it down…"

"But we Still have one player walking around… How odd…" the man in the maids outfit smirked, the black bar still hovering over his eyes. "Her name is Rebecca. Her character's name is Mika Sorano… she's the one who received that special wavemaster look. You know?" he looked over at Lios.

"Hello?" Mika's voice echoed around Carmina Gadelica… how she got here she wasn't sure… all she did was go up to the gate and say the name and then she was there… "Anyone here?" she looked around. "why's no one around? Did they see that thing too?"

"Why can't we force her offline? Umiyichan (Umi-e-chan). Call for Roy and Linda… Get their asses online." Lios ordered.

"Sure thing Lios." Umiyichan smiled and turned his back to Lios, putting his hand to his head, obviously using a phone in real life. "After this… I'm going to … damn. The phones down… Well then, I'll just see to our little friend." Then he disappeared with a pop.

Mika pouted and whimpered, sitting down on a bench. "This sucks… what if I'm stuck like this…?"

"Hello there Mika." Umiyichan appeared next to her, sitting on the bench. He looked over at her with his smile.

Mika leapt up and screamed in fear, then blinked in surprise. "You're that… the one who… Are you with System Administration?" She asked, pointing a shaken finger at him. "You must be…"

"Yes," he nodded. "I am." He then stood up, cupping his hands in front of his chest. "Can you please log out for us?"

"What? I can't. I already tried… nothing happens… when I put my hands to my face I don't feel my Nero goggles… Its like… this is where I live…" Mika explained sadly. "If I could log out, I would… because I wanted to eat when I was done with that first dungeon, and now I don't want to…"

If Umiyichan had eyes, he woulda perked his eyebrows. "I see. Well then, do not worry. Everything should be restored soon." He bowed. "good day Mika. We wish you well." Then he disappeared.

"Well? Any luck?" Lois asked as his co worker appeared. "… Apparently not. She's still logged in… I managed to get Roy, he's going to get Linda and their coming over here to log in directly."

"We'll have to monitor Mika… she's an interesting one…" Umiyichan smiled oddly. "So I'll need a computer to do so…"

Mika sat down on a bench at the grunty ranch. It'd been an hour or so since everything came back online, and she was taking the time to raise a Grunty she had been working to grow into an adult. The small baby sat in her lap, smiling and wiggling while it made a cute 'whrrrrrr' sound like the motor in a kids toy. She giggled when he did that, which normally meant he was hungry. So she pulled out a small blue carrot and put it in front of him.

"Hey. Aren't you that Wavemaster?"

Mika leaned her head back to look at the person talking to her. It was a Long arm, with silver hair that flowed to her waist. She had shallow blue eyes, and her bluish skirt went to her ankles, with a cut on both outsides of her legs, up to her thighs so she could move. A metal plate over her chest had a white mark on it that looked like it was a star. Her shirt, white as well, was adorned with a couple of blue jewels, and a belt around the end of her sleeve, just above the elbow, closed her sleeve. She had gray metal boots on that disappeared into her skirt, but they just stopped halfway up her shins. Various buckles leading in a row up the front helped to keep them on. She smiled.

"… There's a lot of wavemasters in the game…" Mika responded sadly, then looked to her grunty, who was happily chewing on his carrot.

"I mean the one who won that event? You were the, I think 10,000th Japanese person to log on with a wavemaster. It was something like that." The woman leaned her spear against the fence and sat on the bench with Mika. "You guys have terrible luck…" she smiled. "first there was Tsukasa…"

"Yeah. I know… I was only a kid when that happened, but I heard and read about it…" Mika sighed sadly. "Why me…?"

"Where were you! We looked all over damn it! It's your first day and you show up late?" Lios roared.

"Sorry… My computer didn't seem to want to boot up today… It was having trouble doing so…" The new employee's character walked in slowly, his armor clinked with a bluish hum.

"Well next time, why don't you try logging on half an hour before you should be on? Instead of 5 minutes before?" Roy offered. "I mean… If people got word that… You… showed up late for work… People might not look at Balmung of the Azure sky the same way again."

"You're not like Kinoch… I'm glad." Mika smiled. "He attacked me when I went to that first dungeon. I guess he's playing a Pvp server…"

"Don't worry. You're not playing one. He can't hurt you. But I am, so if he shows his face, I'll just get rid of him. That's the only reason I play pvp. I kill those who Pk." The woman told Mika. "By the way, I'm Claire."

"You pk pkers?" Mika blinked and seemed to get a head ache from thinking about it. "But you only do it to those who are bothering others?"

"Yeah, if I meet someone on pvp who's actually doing something, like leveling up, or hunting down a rare item, I'll leave them alone. If you've seen me on the boards… …"

Claire's Hunting service.

Author: Claire

Are you Tired of being attacked when you're trying to level up? Or when you finally beat a hard monster, and a guy just backstabs you, making you lose all that you worked so hard to get in that dungeon? Well Fear no more! Claire is here, and I'll happily get rid of any pests you got floating around your back.

"So how far did you get in the event? I heard that the servers shut down… And that a wavemaster stayed here… even after the game cut service to everyone…" Claire looked over at Mika.

"I got to the end of the first dungeon. Then I ran into some… Monster… it wielded a red wand… and it looked like it was made of rocks…" Mika then told her about how she met Umiyichan, and learned she was trapped.

"Really… So now what?" Claire asked.

"I want to finish this event. Maybe that will help me… I did get this from the first dungeon." Mika pulled out the Virus core and held it up for Claire to see. "I have a lot of time to get going… I just need people to help, incase there are monsters, or Kinoch comes back."

"Well I'll tell my boss I've got some bad flu. Then I can use my sick days to help you. But after that… you're on your own." Claire sighed. "So. You wanna head out?"

"I don't know the keywords for the next dungeon…" Mika hung her head.

"But I know people who do. Lets go to Mac Anu. I'll call them and get them to come over." Claire gave a thumbs up, then added Mika to her party.

They logged into Mac Anu, and Claire walked away from the gate, put a hand on her hip and looked like she was calling someone. Mika wandered over to the Recorder and he started to save her game.

Mika's thoughts began to wander, thinking about when she first started the game… a friend referred her and when she stepped in… she was so excited. She had an original character… she was Unique. This world was new to her and she'd uncover anything she could, beat any monster with a band of friends behind her to heal her and fight with her. Friends she could trust, and fall in love with. Friends that she would avenge if killed by something. This was going to be the best thing Ever!

She could stand someplace and say "Someone famous was standing at this spot when they thought 'I wonder if anyone famous stood here'" If she was lucky, she would run into the legend Balmung. Not only had he beaten One Sin, but helped kite defeat the 8 phases. It was so exciting… but now…

"HEY! There you are!" Claire leapt down the steps and landed next to Mika. "Ready to go?"

Mika nodded and walked over to the Chaos gate. "Where are we going again?" she inquired, looking at Claire, who was saving her game as well. Mika sighed, then perked up when Claire rushed over.

"We're going to Alpha, Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground!" Claire called out, both of them disappeared from Alpha server, and then appeared on the pathway to a large, spooky cathedral. "here we are."

Mika looked it over, then started to walk up to it. "I can… sense something… there's a lot of information trapped in here…" Mika then bolted for the doors, grabbing onto the large handles and pulling the doors open. "SOMETHINGS IN HERE!"


	3. Chapter 3: Reflections

.Hack/Aftermath

Phase 3

Reflections

"Its not gonna stop you know… It's going to keep following me." Tsukasa growled.

"HERE IT COMES!" bear turned to witness as a guardian formed from a ripple in the air.

Everyone began to unleash their attacks, with B.t standing behind to heal everyone… mostly Silver Knight.

"Crim we need your help!" Bear yelled towards the doors before the guardian emitted a low roar and faded.

"We did it… we… OH NO!" Mimiru was glad but then once laying eyes upon the three new guardians, her hopes faded. Maha then appeared before the three guardians.

"Maha! Why are you doing this?" Tsukasa asked. All Maha did was hold up a small flower, then turn to the three guardians, spreading its arms. "MAHA NO!" he cried out, as the three guardians struck the cat player, who pulled them into oblivion with him.

"I'm afraid I can't really tell you how I came to be with my guardian." Tsukasa smirked.

"Well… I was wondering about that too… but is there any chance that you're… a girl?" Mimiru shrugged.

Tsukasa looked hurt. "Not that it's any of your business… but I'm a guy."

"No I meant… you, in real life, the player. A girl." Mimiru explained.

"Why would you ask such a stupid question? It's obvious I'm a guy…"

"Subaru? … are you hurt? Can you feel this…?"

"Shh… please. Not right now. Just… like this… for a couple minutes."

"… alright… … Subaru?"

"Yes?"

"Are you crying?"

"Yes…"

"Its ok Subaru. Cry as much as you like.. I'm here for you."

In real life, Subaru leaned against her computer screen, holding onto it like her character was to Tsukasa… and she cried…

"This is your guardian? If it is, I'm not Impressed!" Bear launched upwards, sword pointed forward towards the guardian.

"STOP NO!" Tsukasa cried out, reaching his hand towards bear as if trying to stop him.

Mimiru's eyes widened as she watched the events unfold.

"Oh. Hello. I'm Mimiru! And you are?"

Tsukasa raised his flute and disappeared.

"… the nerve… oh well. At least he left the treasure!"

"You Sora, have been a bad boy. " Mourgana's voice echoed around the dark field. "Bad boys must be punished…"

"NO WAIT!" Sora screamed as his arms were thrusted outwards and his body lifted into the air. "PLEASE DON'T!"

then, a large red wand appeared behind him…

"You didn't copy the Subaru look. You're the original." Kao-chin smirked. "I know. Because I've been watching you for a long time now…" she watched Subaru take a step back. "I bet you haven't raised your level in quite a while huh? What are you gonna do? Log out? Call for help? No one would hear you… Go ahead. I'll just post about it on the message boards. About how poor little Subaru ran away from a fight and…"

"GO AHEAD." Subaru confronted. "Go post it on the message boards. All you'll be doing is posting your own personal grudge to everyone. They won't care or listen. So go ahead and do so. I won't stop you." She was now holding her ground.

Kao-chin went wide eyed and growled, raising her axe into the air. Then she screeched as she brought it down…

"I love you… my dear… daughter… I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you… I couldn't be there for my own daughter… but… maybe this… this is all I can give you…"

"NO YOU CAN'T!" Tsukasa pushed Mimiru out of the way, taking a jellylike spire through his chest. He groaned, then screamed before the spire was pulled from him, and he fell to the ground, his character growing dark, like all the others did when they died…

"I'm going to cast a spell for you now…" Crim smiled softly.

"A… spell?" Subaru weakly asked.

"Its my phone number in the real world."

"But…. Isn't that…?"

"Against the rules? Yeah… But still. Keep it. I'm tired of being Crimson Knight Crim. I want to be Subaru's Crim."

"Subaru?"

silence comes from her. She slowly looks up. "Tsukasa… why… are you here?"

"I… really don't know. But I felt that if I waited here, I'd find you."

"You were waiting… in this dark place…?"

"… Yeah."

"the one…. Who was waiting…"

"Yes?"

"The one who was waiting… it… IT WAS ME!" Subaru said before collapsing into Tsukasa's arms…


	4. Chapter 4: Reveal

.Hack/Aftermath

Phase 4

Reveal

"What are you talking about?" Claire looked around confused. "Who's here?" her eyes scanned the large interior… nothing… Aside from the rows of wooden dust covered seats, two slowly swinging large metal balls… it was empty.

Mika looked around as well, then began walking to the end of the end of the long hall. "You didn't see it…? It was like… Things that have already happened… I saw Tsukasa…" she whispered the last three words to herself before stopping in front of a rather Large organ.

Claire put her spear against one of the chairs. "My contacts will be here soon…" She eyed the girl, who was on her hands and knees before the organ. She could have sworn Mika was having fun, wiggling her rear end as she looked under the wooden instrument.

"Ok…" Mika murmured as she managed to shiver a little bit more under the organ. "Hey! There's dust under here!" she then proclaimed, throwing back a large cloud of it. Thus pointing out that this had been put here recently…She stood up, and shook a little, dust covering her long dress as she faced Claire. "Know what that means?"

"That's the wavemaster…?" an older voice chuckled from the doors. The blade master started to walk forward, watching Mika, mouth slightly agape.

"Who are you?" Mika coughed, wiping her face a little bit as she cleared her throat.

"I'm Bear." He answered.

"Mimiru sent me." He smiled.

"What do you want?" Tsukasa asked.

"Well She wanted me to talk to you…"

"Hello Bear!" Mika jumped down every step in a childish way to shake off the dust before extending her hand to shake his.

Claire stood up, taking her weapon as she did. "They are coming right?" She asked, slowly making her way to the first row, where she sat down.

"Yes they are. I invited them, so you don't have to worry… They all took great interest in this." Bear looked over with a smile before sitting on the opposite side of the aisle with a slight grunt.

"Who did you invite…?" Mika looked back and forth between the two. She was now happily dust free.

"Some friends of Mine… Mimiru, Crim, Balmung." Bear shrugged. "I think Balmung invited some friends as well."

Mika blinked several times. "Balmung? … Balmung!" she asked with wide eyes. She was going to meet the famous Azure Sky. "Is he going to bring Kite, and Blackrose? What about Helba?" she questioned quickly.

"Maybe." Bear shrugged. "I really don't know."

"Bear!" a voice yelled. "Over here!" They turned to look and it was Mimiru, as she always did, trying to get everyone over to where she was…

Crim pushed her in the back with the end of his spear that wasn't connected to a blade. "Stop that." He barked, before walking towards them. "Balmung said he's coming soon… He just has to do one thing first."

"Balmung. You are part of System Administration. It's your duty to find out what's been going on. Understand?" Lios folded his arms, watching the winged warrior scowl.

"Yes sir…" And Balmung logged from the dark system admin chamber, buried somewhere amongst the alpha server's data.

"So that's what happened. It was really scary…" Mimiru sighed, then looked back at the gates. Still nothing.

"Twilight… Guardian…?" Mika whimpered and took a step closer to Claire, standing just behind her. "You couldn't kill it?"

"We did. It just took a lot of effort…" Bear smiled lightly. "Didn't get experience though."

"I know! That's such a Rip off! I mean jeez! The thing had like, 9999 hp!" Mimiru groaned loudly, throwing her arms around before they settled by her sides.

"But if this is going to be anything like what happened with kite… We'll encounter each of the 8 phases…" Claire scratched her chin.

"Skeith, Innis, Magus, Fidchell, Gorre, Macha, Tarvos…" A voice said, and their eyes directed to the Doors behind them. There stood Balmung.

"Its Balmung!" Mika broke off Claire and ran forward, stopping just before him. Her eyes were wide as she brought her hands up and touched Balmung's armor. She shuddered lightly and swooned, nearly fainting. "He's more handsome in person…"

Balmung just rolled his eyes. "This is her?" He said, Trying his best to ignore the woman walking around him, mentioning what she liked about the suit, tugging on some things lightly as she went.

"Yes. That's Mika." Bear gestured to the woman who was now rubbing her cheek against Balmung's wings, a large smile on her face.

"I See." Balmung sighed, gripping Mika by the arm and turning her to face him. "Please stop that. Its annoying."

"ok…" Mika sighed, pouting lightly as her right hand moved over her chest, gripping it lightly.

"Doctor! What's wrong?"

"Rebecca, Her breathing, its become unsteady."

"Its that Damned game of hers… It put her in this coma didn't it!"

"Yes… But there's a way to bring her out… Thankfully."

"How! I WANT TO KNOW!"

"Mr. Stewart, calm down. Please. I don't know how…"

"This is my daughter you're talking about!"

"Yes… But you've kept the game on right?"

"Yeah… It said so on the screen."

"It said 'Critical Error. Please do not Shut down Terminal or Game.' Correct?"

"Yes… Why? What's that mean?"

"Shutting down the terminal… will kill her."

"What would Kite think if he saw you doing that Anyway?" Balmung asked, knowing that might change her attitude. Mika just looked away.

"He'd Think it was kind of Cute." A voice laughed from behind Balmung. Everyone turned and Mika's eyes went wide as they laid upon the person standing in the doorway. With his orange hat, Vest, and pants. Green hair and blue eyes. Thick brown gloves and shoes. And finally, with his two small blades at his waist…

Kite had Arrived.


	5. Chapter 5: Investigation

.Hack/Aftermath

Phase 5

Investigation

"Oh. My. God. Its KITE!" Mika exclaimed before shaking his hand. "I'm shaking Kite's hand… I'm touching him!" Her eyes were wide as she tried to take everything in.

"Hey guys." Kite waved. "I know the Keywords for the next dungeon. You said you've been to Beta, chosen, hopeless, nothingness. Right? Well the next is Lambda Resurrecting Confused Judgment."

"Isn't that where we fought that weird thing that was running from us?" Blackrose put a hand to her hip. "That plate thing?"

"Yes. It is." Kite nodded. "Mika. If you're ready, we'll all go with you. We'll have teams of three. Me, Blackrose, and Balmung in one team. Bear, Mimiru, and Crim in another… Then that leaves Claire, and you." He pointed to everyone as he said their names. "Is that ok?"

"Yeah. I'm level 15… I should be alright… I know spells and items and such…" Mika suddenly became really worried… what would happen if her character died?

"Don't worry. I'm level 40." Claire grabbed her spear. "There's more than enough of us to defend you Mika." She smirked.

"Yes but what if we get separated? Will Mika be strong enough with just one team member? Is she good enough?" Balmung rolled his eyes.

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"You won't be strong enough! You've got no skill at this game!" a kid laughed at Rebecca. He was wearing a vest and holding a gun from a laser tag game.

"I do too!" Rebecca stomped, grabbing a vest. "Even if I have to fight your team with only another member. I'll win… I know I can."

"HA! Don't make me laugh." Another grabbed his chest for a moment. "You think you're good enough to take us all on? What, just cause you put your heart into this, you'll win?"

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"I will win…" Mika muttered and balled her fists. "I won't lose." Her whispers caught Kite's attention. "I'll show you…"

"Hold on Mika. Who are you talking to?" Kite walked over and put a hand to her shoulder, snapping her back to reality.

"No one… just… its nothing." Mika looked at Kite and smiled. She was going to do everything she could for them.

"Don't mind Balmung. He's just rude most of the time." Blackrose giggled. "Mika, we'll leave monsters for you and Claire to fight. Ok?"

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Topic: Aftermath Part 2

Author: Lios

We are sorry to have postponed the Event. It has been restarted, and all bugs have been fixed.

Reply:

Author: Roy

You may notice white noise and discoloration in the special fields and dungeons. Don't worry, this will not affect you, or your save file as it has been put there to simulate what it was like trying to play on these fields when they were infected. Thank you for playing 'the world'.

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"A new post…" Bear looked up. "Huh. They've officially reopened the fields. Wonder why…" he put a hand to his chin. "I mean why didn't they reopen sooner…"

"Who knows?" Mimiru shrugged. "are we ready to go or not?"

"We should really plan out our course of action before we get moving… So we'll head to the dungeon, Collect the new virus core… … Does that sound good?" Kite looked around at the others. They nodded in agreement. "Good. Lets go!"

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"Finally. They're moving." Lios put a hand to his head.

"You're really into this you know… You should lighten up, Because I thought you did that 6 months ago." Roy chuckled and leaned back in his seat. Roy was a blade master, he looked like he was wearing a suit of armor, but had no helmet, and his sword was glowing blue, with the Cc corp. logo on the blade.

"Shut up! I just don't want another Net Crisis on our hands. We all experienced it, and I'm sure we all don't want it happening again." Lios growled deeply.

"We are better prepared… if that would make you happy." Umiyichan looked up, and the black bar over his eyes wiggled as if it sat on his nose.

"I've done my research, and trust me, if another problem breaks out, we can easily deal with it…" A voice came from a now materializing doorway to the room. A man stepped in with silver hair that came to his chin. His eyes were as blue as could be, and his face had a look to it that practically said 'I should be a model. DAMN I'm handsome'. He wore a long red coat that came to his ankles, a black vest and black pants. His boots were brown with several buckles that crossed the top of em. His sword that sat on his back was long and slick, coming from a dragons mouth that was part of the hilt.

"Yes, you used to be a hacker… That's why." Lios snuffed and made a slurping sound. Roy, Linda, and Umiyichan looked at each other, and tried not to laugh. "I'm drinking coffee!" Lios' face contorted in anger.

"Wow… You really do need to lighten up Lios… Look, I'm sorry I'm late, I thought Claire was covering for me…" The new person sighed and put a hand on his hip.

"Drache… Your wife doesn't count…. Ok? I don't know why we made this man a system administrator." Lios shook his head and tried not to yell at them.

"Because I know the system inside and out." Drache smirked.

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"It's just like the last one." Mika ran forward and turned on the spot, extending her hand to let a string of randomly generated numbers, letters, and symbols floated through her hand. "What's wrong with it?"

"They were never really able to fix it…" Balmung folded his arms with a look that told everyone he thought she shoulda known that. "So we just sealed off access to the 7 fields and dungeons."

"Weren't there eight phases though?" Mika tilted her head, and several long bangs fell before her face. "Where did you fight the last one?"

"The last phase, Corbienk, we fought in Lia Fail. It just appeared when we were getting ready to fight." Kite popped his knuckles and picked up both of his twin blades.

"I wonder If Ghosts of data will show up here as well." Crim spoke out loud. "Wouldn't it be cool to see Kite fighting the next phase?"

"MIKA NO!" Claire reached out, and this attracted everyone's attention, as they now saw Mika take another step towards a monster gate. "Stop right there!"

"Its fake. Don't worry. We managed to copy over the monster gates that normally spawn monsters." Balmung began to walk forward, ignoring the quick flashes of white noise and discoloration that they 'programmed' into the field. "So its safe to get close to it…"

But he thought wrong, as a data bugged hellhound emerged from the gate. Everyone took in a deep breath, Balmung jumped back, and everyone got their weapons ready. Strangely, the dog didn't notice Mika. It just growled and hunched down, staring the group down.

"What's this?" Mika picked up one of the green hexagons, to everyone's amazement. The monster didn't even notice the data break, or Mika. It didn't have time to really, seeing as Kite data drained the monster, and Balmung cut it down the middle. The dog roared and faded from sight, along with the green object Mika had picked up.

"How did that happen? MIKA! WHAT DID YOU DO TO THE REWRITE!" Balmung rushed over and grabbed the wavemaster by the collar, hoisting her into the air. He snarled, ignoring her whimpers. "What did you do!"

"Let her go! She didn't do anything!" Bear pointed his sword to Balmung, tapping him on the shoulder with it. "She is different now… There's a chance that the system changed once she found that crystal…"

"If only someone else had found it… I hate glitches." Balmung let go of Mika. "She got a special character skin, and then came here. So its all her fault…"

"She didn't do anything wrong. It's not her fault and you know it Balmung." Kite growled. "Do you and your friends want to see us help Mika or let her be trapped here and possibly die in the real world?"

Balmung snorted and turned for the dungeon. It was soon apparent that something had changed in the system, Because only when Mika approached a gate, did the monsters appear. But it didn't take much to allow a data drain. The monsters always ignored her, but never really moved from their spot, they stood where they appeared and growled at the group. This wasn't much of a hindrance to the plan, just a little annoying at times…

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"So you're the Drache we've heard so much about…" Linda rolled her head and popped her neck, leaning against her spear. "You not only saw the key of the twilight… But you were data drained."

"Yeah. After the data drain, when I woke up, I decided to work for the guys I had been pissing off." Drache chuckled lightly. "Now it seems the only one I made angry was Lios."

"It's a good thing that Silver Knight guy never caught you. He woulda gotten rid of you really easily." Roy took a bite of the air, then nodded. "Sammish." He said with his mouth full of food in real life. "lunssh."

Drache nodded. "He did try to get me, but I did beat him in a fight. I actually did it fair as well. That's the sad part. He did fight well, If I didn't have healing potions, he actually would have won." He then shrugged and retold to them the fight with Silver Knight…

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"It's the Third floor… So this is it then?" Crim asked as he received a heal from Mika. "Please let it be…"

"Yes. Its right through there." Kite pointed to the purple flames slowly coming out of the ground of the doorway across from them. "After this, we should head back to the cathedral." He walked forward and into the gate, disappearing from sight.

"Are you Ready Mika?" Claire asked, now standing alone with the wavemaster. "We'll all be here for you if things go badly…"

Mika nodded. "Yes. But I… I wanna go home. I'm scared." She buried her face into Claire's dress. "I just want this to end."

"Don't worry. It'll be ok Mika. I promise… let's go into the gate." Claire tried to reassure Mika, and then led her into the gateway for the last room…

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Topic: NEW CLASSES!

Author: Drache

Guess what? New classes! With the new expansion of "the world" we introduce a new class. No I won't tell you what it is. Sorry. But the name of the new class is … well, classified! Even on the box it doesn't tell you. You'll have to buy the expansion, and the information of the class will be emailed to you, so will the information about what you can do with your new upgrade. Thanks for Playing 'The World'!

End Phase 5

((holy crap. I'm so so so so so sorry about the long delay between chapters… I've started my senior year, and… well the second nine weeks has just started, and I'm still having trouble getting my schedule together, cause I'm always doing stuff and almost never have time to type. Sure I'm often online at night, and I should type then, but I'm often busy even then, trying to figure out what to do with a webcomic I'm working on.

If you've been waiting for this, or the next chapter of S-cry-ed or Inuyasha, then I'm sorry, I am working on them though. So don't worry. They will be posted at some point. You'll be notified if you put me on your author alert thing… you know, tells you when a new chapter is up. That thing. Well, thanks for waiting, I'm glad you all like what I'm typing. Its good to know I have fans . Again, sorry for the delay, and if you're looking for some original stuff of mine, Look for "Serenade of the Stars" in fiction press. Serenade is my baby, and I love her. Sure Its only typed chapter 2. but I started book 2 in writing. It's going so well and I love it to death. It's worth the time to read it I think. And I got some poems on there. don't expect any more poems… I suck at writing them. alright. Well, time to end my rant. Bye.))


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